


An Ode to Bioluminescent Jellyfish

by conniptionns



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Be Gentle With Me, M/M, this has nothing to do with jellyfish tho they are mentioned, this is my first check please fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2018-09-17 18:04:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9336476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conniptionns/pseuds/conniptionns
Summary: 02: “I think I’m in love with you and that scares the hell out of me.”Originally posted 01-15-17; edited 03-11-18





	

The athletes arrived at Samwell two weeks before the rest of the student body and Derek was looking forward to moving into the dorms with his linemate, Poindexter. Part of him wished he had gotten into a dorm with Chris Chow but he was over in the honors dorm, and while Nursey had graduated with good grades, he wasn’t sure he was cut out for the Honors College. It was fine though, because Chris was super chill and they had mapped out their schedules and figured out the best time to all get lunch together before practice.

The first two weeks living with Dex had been pretty lowkey. Nursey’s classes hadn’t started yet and his new freedoms had made him feel like a real person for the first time in his life. To prove to himself he was a real adult he kept to a pretty decent schedule. He was even making his bed every morning followed by jogging with Poindexter to the dining hall for breakfast.

Shit hit the fan two days into the third week.

“What the fuck, Nurse? You can’t just leave your shit lying all over the floor,” Dex groaned as he walked into the room and stepped directly onto a mechanical pencil, snapping it into five pieces.

“Shit, brah. You know that’s my b. I was doing a free write for my intro to poetry class and must have forgotten to pick it up,” Derek grinned from his lofted bed.

“It’s not just the pencil, Nursey. Your clothes are everywhere man. It’s been two days since I saw you put away all these clothes, no way you’ve gone through this many outfits.”

“Nah man, that’s all clean. I just couldn’t figure out what to wear.”

Dex pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “You threw your clean clothes on the dirty floor?”

“Dexy, we’ve cleaned the floors twice since we moved in. Chillax, brah, it’s just my dirt, no worries.”

Dex sighed heavily out of his nose. “That’s not…Nursey…it isn’t—“ Dex shook his head like he was ridding himself of a negative thought, turned back around and left the way he came in, but not before calling, “Clean this shit up, Nurse,” over his shoulder.

* * *

Quickly the two defensemen grew a disdainful rapport—all in good fun!

It started out on a Wednesday in October. Nursey was taking an improv class and on this particular day Dex and Nursey walked into the Haus with Nursey ribbing Dex good-naturedly. Normally Nursey just ran lines, but because it was an improv class he had a list of topics that he made people practice with him. The only issue was that outside of Dex, the only person on the hockey team who knew about the improv class was Chowder. So when Dex and Nursey walked into the Haus, Nursey was teasing Dex meanly about his freckles. Nursey’s goal with this was to portray overcoming an adversary, but the only person who knew was he was doing just turned red at the ears whenever Nursey needled him. Chowder was meeting up with a girl from his Chem II class and wasn’t there to deflect attention from the two defensemen.

“Poindexter! Brah, don’t let him get to you man! Stand your ground,” Holster shouted from where he was slumped on the couch next to Ransom, playing Portal 2.

“Dexter, you gotta give it as good as you take it, bud,” Ransom said, his voice shooting up an octave towards the end as he fell into the water and was forced back to the beginning.

“Guys, chillax. Dexy and I—“ Nursey began before Dex cut in with a “—Shut up, _brah_ , and don’t call me Dexy.” Ransom and Holster whooped from the couch, but Nursey was the only person to see the teasing light in Dex’s eyes.

The rest of the team seemed to love the rivalry Dex and Nursey had going on and only encouraged the boys to keep up the charade. The team let the story run away from them to the point where the coaches were checking up on them to make sure one of them didn’t need to be pulled from the starting line, but _no Coach Hall we’re chill as ever_.

No one believed them, but that was just a testament to how great of actors they were. In fact, by the time Spring C rolled around, the two of them even started to believe it themselves. They still watched Netflix originals together in their dorm, ate breakfast together, and met up with Chowder for lunch. But when Nursey said, “Brev, we gotta win, Dex.” The animosity when Dex snarled, “Did you just fucking call me Windex?” didn’t feel entirely forced.

* * *

The issue with being Bitch Bros with your Best Bro was that when you wanted to change the parameters of your relationship, any and all attempts at serious conversation were brushed off. Dex seemed totally chill with the way their friendship had unfolded, and that was fair. It was Nursey that had wheedled him into practicing with him, and Nursey couldn’t regret it entirely. It was nice to see Dex really come into his own over the past year. Nursey silently prided himself on helping Dex become more comfortable with letting biting quips slip. The only issue was Nursey _for serious_ didn’t want to be on the receiving end of those biting quips anymore. Maybe some chirping, but the way Dex refused to meet his eyes whenever he chirped him really sucked.

* * *

“EAT SHIT, BRAH.”

“ _Bitch.”_

“Oh, William, the love in your voice is completely unmistakable,” Nursey cooed as he knocked Dex off of Rainbow Road in Mario Kart.

Dex got up and slammed the front door of the Haus. A hot wave shot through Nursey and he paused the game before launching the controller at Holster, who was reading with Ransom’s head in his lap. Dex had never flipped like this and Nursey was terrified that he had gone too far this time.

“Dex. Poindexter! _Will!_ ” Nursey called, sprinting after Dex.

Dex stopped walking but he didn’t turn around either.

“What the hell man. You can’t just run off like that, brah, you gotta talk to me! We’re bros man! That means I got your back and if you need to beat my ass at Mario Kart, man just say the word and you know I would be there for you.”

Dex’s shoulders tensed before he turned around and said, “I think I’m in love with you and that scares the hell out of me.”

_“Are you fucking serious?”_

Dex’s face fell flat and he spun around before stalking off towards the dorms.

“Hey man! Don’t just walk off before you let me finish, William J. Poindexter. You know that shit isn’t fair and you know that, royal prick or not, you agreed when we first moved in together that we would talk shit out so we didn’t end up knifing each other in the night like that one horror movie I never watched. She was knifed right?”

Dex slowly turned to face Nursey. Lips drawn together tightly, jaw clenched. “I don’t want ta fucking discuss movies right now, _Derek_.” He spit Nursey’s name like it was a dirty word and Nursey just wanted to hold him.

“Okay okay yeah no that’s…that’s chi—fair that’s fair. What I meant was, are you for real? Because Will I’ve liked you since like…forever?”

“Nursey, please don’t fuck with me. I really cannot deal right now.”

“Dex, I’m serious. I think I’m in love with you too, but that’s stupid right? Because you don’t even look me in the eye when you talk to me. But I love your freckles, and your bright ass hair, and your creepy demon eyes, and your big ass ears. I love _you_ , Dex.”

Dex gave a watery laugh. “You think I have demon eyes and big ass ears?”

“Baby they’re the creepiest eyes and no joke your ears are satellites orbiting your head.”

“Fuck you.” But it was half-hearted at best.

“Man, I wish I hadn’t fucked this up. I always pictured we’d be like at the aquarium and I would take you to see the jellyfish and I would say something romantic. It always ended with you making out in front of the jellyfish with me.” Nursey kicked at the gravel.

“Well say the romantic thing and maybe we can make out in front of that goose over there,” Dex said with a tight laugh.

“Dex, I didn’t realize it would be this soon. You’re nothing like a jellyfish! What the fuck am I supposed to say!”

“How about: Dex, I really love you and I’ve always wanted to suck face in front of bioluminescent jellyfish?”

“What the fuck man? They’re bioluminescent?! Dexy, baby, your eyes shine of their own volition in the dark just like those fucking jellies, brah.”

“I can’t believe I’m in love with you.”

“I can’t believe it either.” Nursey sighed reaching out to grab both of Dex’s hands.

Dex inhaled deeply through his nose, pulled on Nursey’s arms, and tucked him into his chest. “We’re going to go back to the room and all your shit is going to be on the floor,” Dex laughed.

“Baby, if it made you happy enough to hold me like this for a little while longer, I’d clean my room every day.”

Dex pulled back his head to look down at Nursey. Nursey had both of his hands wrapped around Dex’s waist and had they not been in public, Nursey probably would have wrapped his legs around Dex as well and said some ridiculous shit like “carry me, brah, you’re so strong” or something else equally cringeworthy. Dex cupped Nursey’s face and smoothed his thumb over Nursey’s eyebrow before leaning down to kiss him.

Dex was slightly worried because he hadn’t bothered to use chapstick recently and he had a tendency to lick his lips, even when it was windy and Nursey’s lips were full and soft. Dex’s mind started to go off on another tangent when Nursey fisted his hands in Dex’s shirt and pulled himself closer to Dex to get a better angle before deepening the kiss and _oh._ Maybe Nursey didn’t have to clean up the floor right away. Dex knew that at the very least _his_ bed was made and they could share. He wanted very much to _share._


End file.
